Town council updated during several reports

At the most recent Town Council meeting, the members approved a transfer of a liquor license from Tony Deromedi to Jennifer Fisher for her new business OEB Saloon at 500 South 6th Street. Fisher is just getting started on plans for the new business but says they include selling bar food, such as pizza and chicken wings. 

Town Engineer Anthony Barnett was not present at the meeting. Heath Overfield took Barnett’s place for the evening to report. Overfield said that they are continuing the design of the roof replacement for the town shop and are considering various options before they put out a bid for contractors. Overfield also reported they turned in an application for a permit three months ago for the transfer station and that it went through an environmental study. The study showed there were no negative consequences to some items found there and therefore they can go forward with the permit. The permit can be finally approved in about one or two weeks.

Overfield said regarding the transfer station itself he is going through an update on cost estimates and scope. He will meet with town treasurer Tracey Van Heule to go over the big picture numbers of what the station will look like. Overfield added that he and others are nervous about the state’s budget cuts and how it will affect their needs. Overfield said that they will need to do a work session with Fred Crosby and Van Heule to go over the details of what the transfer station will look like from a budget perspective and discuss some challenges they face.

During some discussion, Council member Dusty Lewis brought up an idea to have a central location for just disposing of brush waste instead of putting brush waste at each individual dumpster. Lewis said that it doesn’t take much brush to fill up a dumpster and having a central location might reduce the man hours and trips for the trucks. Overfield said that Lewis’s suggestion would be good to explore in the work session when deciding on how to run the transfer station and collection of waste. 

In the administration report, assistant to Mayor Fred Crosby provided a Memorandum of Understanding between the County’s Community Prevention Program and the Police Department. The purpose of the MOU is to provide prevention services that will benefit the community in things such as alcohol and tobacco compliance checks, enhanced enforcement of alcohol laws among youth offenders and alcohol and drug enforcement at parties and among a variety of other focuses. Police Chief Julie Mathews said this program is a two-year grant and will provide training in things such as TIPS training. Crosby asked if a vote of confidence could be held to sign the letter of the MOU. Mayor Mike Chimenti and the Council passed the vote of confidence. 

Lewis added that they plan on doing the ice rink again for this winter and asked if the town can make the footprint of the rink larger and level the ground with a blade runner. The council members commented on how successful the previous winter’s ice rink went.